Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada—the Immigrants’ Experience

Margaret Yap & Mark Holmes &

Charity-Ann Hannan & Wendy Cukier

# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Abstract This paper explores the correlates of career satisfaction among Canadianmanagers, professionals and executives, specifically the career satisfaction experi-ence of both visible minority and non-visible minority immigrants. Survey datacollected from over 13,000 managers, professionals and executives in 43 Canadianorganizations were analysed using the ordinary least squares multiple regressiontechnique. Results indicate that immigrants experience lower career satisfaction thannative-borns and visible minority immigrants have lower career satisfaction than non-visible minority immigrants. Employee and employer characteristics, objective em-ployment outcomes and subjective perceptual measures were found to be positivelyassociated with career satisfaction for immigrant and native-born respondents.

Keywords Immigrants . Visible minority . Career satisfaction

Introduction

Canada is increasingly facing a shortage of skilled workers. This situation is certainlynot unique to Canada as countries around the world face similar talent shortages intheir respective markets. Combined with an accelerating demand for skilled workers,this shortage may impede opportunities for organizational growth (Manpower Group2012). In today’s globalized economy, competition for skilled labour is becoming a

Int. Migration & IntegrationDOI 10.1007/s12134-012-0268-y

M. Yap (*)Human Resources Management, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University,Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canadae-mail: myap@ryerson.ca

M. HolmesYork University, Toronto, ON, Canada

C.-A. Hannan :W. CukierRyerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada

concern for organizations as they continue to strive for economic growth andmaintain competitive advantage in the world economy. One of the ways to offsetthis impending shortage of skilled workers is through immigration. Indeed, immigra-tion is expected to account for a full 100 % of Canada’s net labour force growth in thenot-too-distant future (Citizenship & Immigration Canada 2012). The proportion ofimmigrants who self-identify as visible minorities is also increasing. In Canada, theterm visible minority is defined as “persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who arenon-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.” Compared to earlier waves ofimmigrants who arrived primarily from European countries and tended to be white,recent immigrants are increasingly arriving from China, India and the Philippines(Statistics Canada 2008a, 2012). More specifically, 75 % of immigrants who arrivedin Canada between 2001 and 2006 identified as visible minorities (Statistics Canada2008b). In addition, projections estimate that 19 to 23 % of Canada’s population willbe composed of visible minorities by 2017, up from 16.2 % in 2006 (StatisticsCanada 2006, 2011).

Moreover, in recent years, more than 40 % of the immigrants admitted to Canadawere categorized under the skilled worker category (Citizenship and ImmigrationCanada 2008). In 2006, immigrants who were 25 to 54 years of age were more likelyto have a university degree than Canadian-born men and women. While 36 % ofimmigrants in this age group had at least a bachelor’s degree, the proportion amongthose born in Canada was only 22 % (Statistics Canada 2007). However, there isevidence that many immigrants face barriers that prevent them from integratingequitably into the Canadian labour force (Li 2000; Zietsma 2007), and they facemultiple barriers in the labour market in terms of income attainment, career devel-opment, occupational rank and salary (Abbott and Beach 2011; Aydemir andSkuterud 2008; Balakrishnan and Hou 1999; Commission on the Reform ofOntario’s Public Services 2010; Gosine 2000; Greenhaus et al. 1990; Howland andSakellariou 1993; Li 2000; Nakhaie 2006; Swidinsky and Swidinsky 2002;Teelucksingh and Galabuzi 2005; Zietsma 2007, 2010). Despite the fact that theaverage immigrant has more education than the average native-born Canadian, theireducation and work experience have not been translated into a commensurate level ofearnings (Bloom and Grant 2001; Bloom and Gunderson 1991; Li 2000; StatisticsCanada 2011; Teelucksingh and Galabuzi 2005; Zietsma 2007). For example, previ-ous studies found that it takes between 10 and 40 years for immigrants’ pay andbenefits satisfaction to converge with those of their native-born counterparts(Chowhan et al. 2012; Frenette and Morissette 2003; Hum and Simpson 1999).

Why Career Satisfaction?

All workers, immigrants or otherwise, want to have the opportunity to fully utilizetheir skills, knowledge and expertise and be successful in their careers. Much of theresearch to date has focused on the integration of new immigrants to the workforce,but few studies have addressed the experience of immigrants as they progress throughtheir careers. Career success has been defined to include both objective (pay, promo-tions) and subjective (job satisfaction, career satisfaction) elements (Heslin 2005).Studies have been conducted to explore the factors which predict career success

M. Yap et al.

relating to both the subjective and objective components (Abele et al. 2011; Abeleand Spurk 2009; Nabi 2001).

Career satisfaction is an important perceptual measure as it not only capturesan individual’s self-referent definition of career success but it also has impli-cations for employers. For example, Cowin et al. (2008) and Egan et al. (2004)found that job satisfaction positively impacts employee retention, while Poon(2004) found that career satisfaction was positively associated with careercommitment. Overall, employees who are satisfied with their careers are moreengaged and thus more likely to actively contribute to the organization’ssuccess (Harter et al. 2002; Harter et al. 2009; Koyuncu et al. 2006). Harteret al. (2009) found that work units with higher levels of employee engagementsignificantly increased their odds of success. Response to career dissatisfactioncan take the psychological form of employees’ disengagement. When dissatis-fied employees are less engaged in their work, they will likely exhibit greaterintentions to leave their organizations (Koyuncu et al. 2006).

Some of these studies have explicitly considered demographic variables such asrace (white/non-white) in their analysis, but the results are mixed. In their study ofmore than 1,300 US executives, Judge et al. (1995) suggest that demographic, humancapital, motivation and organizational variables explained significant variance incareer success and satisfaction. The authors found that while level, quality, prestigeof education and degree type predicted financial success, only motivational andorganizational variables explained significant variance in job satisfaction. The authorsconclude that the variables affecting “objective” career success are very differentfrom those producing “subjectively” defined success. Interestingly, their study showsthat despite earning more and receiving more promotions (objective measures), whiteexecutives tended to be less satisfied with their jobs (subjective measures) than“minority” executives. Similarly, Koyuncu et al. (2006) found that work situationcharacteristics as well as work life experiences had a direct impact on the jobsatisfaction, career satisfaction and intent to quit of employees. In contrast,Greenhaus et al. (1990) studied 828 manager/supervisor pairs and found that blacksreported having less job discretion and lower feelings of acceptance than whites.They also reported receiving fewer promotions and being less satisfied with theircareers and were more likely to report negative organizational experiences thanwhites. Focusing on the IT sector, Igbaria and Wormley (1992) found evidence thatBlacks receive less career support and tended to have lower levels of met expectationsand career satisfaction than whites. Deshpande and Deshpande (2012) also found thatvisible minorities had lower levels of career satisfaction than white/Caucasians.Shields et al. (2010) also found that it took just over 10 years for immigrants to reacha level of satisfaction with their pay and benefits similar to that indicated byCanadian-born individuals.

Others have considered the role of gender. Armstrong-Stassen and Cameron(2005) looked at career satisfaction of older managerial and professional womenand found that both individual and organization-related characteristics accountfor over 40 % of the variance in career satisfaction of both professional andmanagerial women. In contrast to the extent of information on immigrants’demographic, human capital and objective workplace experiences, there is alack of information on immigrants’ perceptions of their workplace experiences.

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada

Similarly, a review of the literature indicates that there is a need to examineimmigrants’ work experiences (Bell et al. 2010) and more specifically, theircareer satisfaction levels (Lopes 2006) and the factors that affect those levels(Greenhaus et al. 1990). Studies relating to the impact of immigrant status oncareer success found that “foreign-born academic scientists and engineers aremore productive than their U.S.-born peers in all areas but their averagesalaries” and “their work satisfaction levels are lower than those of US-bornscientists” (Corley and Sabharwal 2007; Sabharwal 2011). Others have exam-ined the impact of acculturation and acculturation stress on career outcomes,arguing that immigrants’ intercultural effectiveness, coping skills and careermotivation are important moderators between acculturation stress and careeroutcomes (Bhagat and London 1999). However, in general, there is limitedresearch comparing immigrant and non-immigrant career outcomes, particularlycareer satisfaction.

Considering that 75 % of Canada’s recent immigrants are members of visibleminority groups (Statistics Canada 2008b) and the limited literature on the careersuccess of immigrants in the Canadian labour force, our paper will explore the subjectivecomponent of career success in order to identify some of its correlates and assess thelevel of career satisfaction of both visible minority and non-visible minority immigrants.The next section presents a proposed theoretical framework of the correlates of careersatisfaction. The third section discusses the method and sample used in this study,followed by empirical findings from analyses of the survey data.

Conceptual Framework

Auster (2001) developed a conceptual framework to measure the career satisfactionof midcareer professional women. Auster’s framework examines the impact of fivedimensions on career satisfaction. The framework proposes that career satisfaction isimpacted by (1) individual characteristics, (2) career characteristics, (3) organization-al characteristics, (4) job characteristics and (5) stress factors. The framework wasused in Auster and Ekstein (2005) to examine the career satisfaction levels of 125professional engineering women. They found that career characteristics and organi-zational variables had insufficient impact on career satisfaction; the greatest impacton career satisfaction was derived from job characteristics.

This paper uses an augmentation of the framework in Auster (2001). We posit thatthe career satisfaction of professional immigrants will be related to the followingcategories: (1) employee characteristics, (2) employer characteristics, (3) objectiveemployment outcomes and (4) subjective workplace perceptions. Employee charac-teristics include gender, visible minority status, membership in the LGBT community,disability, marital status and the human capital they bring to the workplace includingtenure, age and education. Employer characteristics include industry sector, occupa-tion, rank in organization and region of work. Objective employment outcomesinclude compensation and whether the employees had received any developmentalopportunities or promotions in the 3 years prior to completing the survey. Subjectiveworkplace perceptions include the employees’ relationship with their managers andtheir colleagues, the degree of skill utilization and the extent to which employees feel

M. Yap et al.

that their organization’s career advancement processes are fair. Each of the four keyfactors discussed above are elaborated upon below.

Employee Characteristics

Our model considers a range of personal characteristics including gender, visibleminority, disability, LGBT status and whether the person is an immigrant. Previousstudies have found that women were less satisfied with their careers than men (Ayerset al. 2008; Buddeberg-Fischer et al. 2010; Hofmans et al. 2008), that visibleminorities were less satisfied than white/Caucasians (Deshpande and Deshpande2012) and that immigrants were less satisfied than Canadian-born respondents(Igbaria and Wormley 1992). Although we were unable to locate empirical studiesthat looked at career satisfaction levels of people with disabilities, and those identi-fying as LGBT, studies have examined job satisfaction. Uppal (2005) and Gaziogluand Tansel (2006) found that employees with disabilities are less satisfied at work,and Drydakis (2012) found that employees identifying as gay were less satisfied withtheir jobs than heterosexual respondents. Based on these findings, we would expectthese groups to be correlated with lower career satisfaction.

H1a: Women are less satisfied with their careers than men.H1b: Visible minorities are less satisfied with their careers than white/

Caucasians.H1c: Immigrants are less satisfied with their careers than Canadian-born

respondents.H1d: LGBTs are less satisfied with their careers than heterogeneous

respondents.

In addition to personal characteristics, our analyses also consider a range of humancapital variables. Education, age and tenure are part of an employee’s human capital,acting as proxies for their abilities, skills, qualifications and expertise. If the person-job match is optimal, then one would expect employees with higher educationalattainment to be involved in more interesting work and therefore enjoy a higher levelof career satisfaction. On the other hand, if employees are placed in jobs that did notutilize their education or if these employees have higher expectations from theircareers, they may feel less satisfied. Previous studies have found that higher educa-tional attainment is often associated with lower job satisfaction (Gazioglu and Tansel2006; Long 2005). Older employees may feel less satisfied with their careers thanyounger employees if they feel their opportunities for further professional growthwere limited (Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel 2009; Korman et al. 1981; Lyons et al.2012, Templer et al. 2010). Clark et al. (1996) found that job satisfaction has a u-shaped correlation with age, which we would posit will also be found with careersatisfaction. Finally, long tenure has been found to be associated with a lower level ofsatisfaction (Gattiker and Larwood 1988; Lee 2003).

H2a: More educated employees will be less satisfied with their careers.H2b: Age will have a u-shaped relationship with career satisfaction.H2c: Tenure will have an inverse relationship with career satisfaction.

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada

Employer Characteristics

The employer characteristics investigated in our analyses include ranks within theorganization and controls for industries and place of work. Our sample includesemployees from managerial, professional and executive roles in various industriesacross Canada. Previous studies have found that employees occupying higher rankingpositions will experience higher levels of career success and satisfaction (Eyupogluand Saner 2009; Zussman and Jabes 1989). Therefore, we hypothesize that employ-ees occupying roles in higher ranks in the organizational hierarchy will be moresatisfied with their careers.

H3: Higher ranking respondents will be more satisfied with their careers.

Objective Employment Outcomes

Challenging jobs have been associated with higher levels of career satisfaction inboth managerial and professional women (Burke 2001). We posit that employees whoreceived promotions or developmental opportunities will be more satisfied with theircareers, as has been illustrated by previous research (Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel2009; De Vos et al. 2011). Promotions account for significant variance in careersatisfaction levels (Seibert and Kraimer 2001).

H4a: Respondents who have received promotions will be more satisfied withtheir careers than those who have not.

H4b: Respondents who have received developmental opportunities will be moresatisfied with their careers than those who have not.

Subjective Workplace Perceptions

Employees’ perceptions of the workplace affect their effectiveness in carrying outtheir work (Armstrong-Stassen and Cameron 2005; Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel2009). This paper looks at four perceptual measures: relationship with manager,relationship with colleagues, perception of fairness of the organization’s careeradvancement processes and degree to which respondents feel their skills are beingutilized in their current jobs.

An employee’s relationship with their manager is critical to their career satisfaction.Studies have shown that a lack of career and leadership support can lead to dissatisfac-tion (Igbaria and Wormley 1992; Romle and Shamsudin 2006) and that a goodrelationship with one’s supervisor is associated with higher career satisfaction (Augustand Waltman 2004). Conversely, effective communication and supportive relationshipswhere managers provide feedback, guidance and career-related information can enhancean individual’s career (Baird and Kram 1983; Romle and Shamsudin 2006).

H5a: Respondents who indicate a positive relationship with their managers willbe more satisfied with their careers.

M. Yap et al.

An employee’s relationship with their colleagues can affect their access to job/career information. Studies have shown that informal social networking, an importantvenue where information about advancement and promotion opportunities are dis-cussed (Tsui and Gutek 1984), has a positive effect on career success (Wolff andMoser 2009) Although women engage in formal and informal networking more thanmen, the positive relationship between networking and career satisfaction is higherfor men (Emmerik et al. 2006). However, visible minorities usually receive supportfrom fewer networks (McGuire 2012).

H5b: Respondents who indicate a positive relationship with their colleagues willhave greater career satisfaction.

Igbaria and Wormley (1992) found that fair assessment of an employee’s perfor-mance by their managers is associated with positive advancement prospects, and hence,fairness is related to higher career satisfaction. More recently, Alansari (2011) found thatfair performance evaluations were ranked among the top most important aspect of jobsatisfaction. Therefore, we expect employees’ perceptions of fairness in their organiza-tion’s career advancement process to be related to higher levels of career satisfaction.

H5c: Respondents who perceive their performance evaluations to be fair willhave greater career satisfaction.

Finally, Aryee (1993) found that skill utilization is positively associated with careersatisfaction. In a review of literature by Feldman (1996), it was found that underem-ployment negatively effects career satisfaction. More recently, Lai and Kapstad (2009)found that competence mobilization is positively related to career and pay satisfaction.Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel (2009) also found higher levels of career satisfaction forthose respondents who felt that their work was valued. Accordingly, we posit skillsutilization will have a positive association with career satisfaction. Employees who areable to utilize their expertise at work will have a sense of achievement and personalsatisfaction that will result in a higher level of career satisfaction.

H5d: Respondents who perceive their skills to be used to their full potential willhave greater career satisfaction.

Overall, we propose that employees who scored higher on these perceptualmeasures will experience a higher level of career satisfaction.

Data and Method

Sample

This paper utilizes survey data collected as part of a larger study that examined careeradvancement of visible minorities in corporate Canada (Diversity Institute andCatalyst Canada 2007). Financial Post 500 organizations were invited to participatein this research project. The Financial Post identified the biggest 500 corporationsbased on their previous year’s revenues. Over 60,000 senior employees from 43organizations and firms across Canada that agreed to participate were invited to

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada

complete an online survey. Over 17,000 pre-managers, managers, professionals andexecutives responded to the survey between October 2006 and February 2007 at aresponse rate of 29 %. Of the full-time employees who responded, 54 % were maleand 50 % possessed some form of university education. The average tenure with theirrespective organizations was 11.4 years, at an average age of 41.7 years with anaverage salary of $90,775.

Case-wise deletion, a method of sample selection whereby an employee is exclud-ed if there are any missing values in any of our variables of interest, yielded a finalsample of over 13,000 respondents who were full-time employees. Of the employeesincluded in our final sample, 54 % were male and 52 % possessed some forms ofuniversity education. The average tenure with their respective organizations was11.3 years, at an average age of 40.7 with an average salary of $90,645.

There are no discernible differences based on the demographic characteristicsbetween the selected sample and the employees who completed the survey with theexception of salary. About 60 % of the respondents included in the final sampleearned $40,000 or more, compared to only 55 % of all the respondents to the survey.Table 1 summarizes the objective variables used in this paper.

Perceptual Measures

The subjective perceptual measures used in this study are described in more detailbelow. A five-point scale was used for each measure, ranging from strongly disagreeto strongly agree. Responses to the items used in each measure were averaged andconverted to a 0 to 100 scale.

For the purposes of this paper, the dependent variable was assessed with a four-item career satisfaction scale which asked respondents how satisfied they were withtheir progress toward meeting their overall career goals, their goals for income,advancement and the development of new skills (Greenhaus et al. 1990). This scalehas also been used in other studies that looked at career satisfaction (Igbaria 1991;Judge et al. 1995; Seibert and Kraimer 2001; Armstrong-Stassen and Cameron 2005).The reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha) was 0.85.

The employees’ relationship with their managers was assessed using a seven-itemscale (Greenhaus et al. 1990). This measure accesses the support and sponsorshipoffered by managers and the extent to which managers facilitate career and personaldevelopment of their employees. Items include: “My manager makes an effort tolearn about my career goals and aspirations”; “My manager keeps me informed aboutdifferent career opportunities for me in my organization”; “My manager providesappropriate recognition when I accomplish something substantial in the job”; “Mymanager gives me helpful feedback about my performance”; “My manager supportsmy attempts to acquire any addition training/education that I need to further mycareer”; “My manager provides assignments to develop new strengths and skills” and“My manager assigns special projects to me that increase my visibility in theorganization”. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha) was 0.95.

The employees’ relationship with colleagues was assessed using five items fromthe survey (Diversity Institute and Catalyst Canada 2007). This measure capturesfeelings of respect and inclusivity shown by colleagues. Items include: “My col-leagues treat me with respect”; “My colleagues treat each other with respect”; “I

M. Yap et al.

receive the support that I need form other co-workers to meet my work objectives”;“My colleagues keep me informed on matters that may impact my work”; “Mycolleagues include me in informal networking”. The reliability coefficient(Cronbach alpha) was 0.86.

Table 1 Variable definitions

Variable name Description

Foreign born A derived variable using responses to a question that asked country of birth.Respondents with country of birth other than Canada were consideredforeign born, i.e. immigrants.

Foreign credentials Indicates if respondent possess credentials earned outside of the USA, Canada,Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany or the UK.

Foreign work experience Indicates if the respondent has work experience outside of Canada.

Annual salary Employee’s annual salary level at time of completion of survey.

Visible minority Refers to a person, who is not an Aboriginal person, who is non-Caucasian inrace or non-white in colour.

Gender Indicates whether respondent is male or female.

Marital status A set of dummy variables representing respondent’s marital status: single,married, separated/divorced/widowed.

Disability Indicates if respondent self-identified as having a long-term or recurringphysical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment and considershimself/herself to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of impairment.

LGBT Indicates if respondent self-identified as a member of the Lesbian, Gay,Bisexual, or Transgendered community.

Region Indicates the region where the employees work. A set of dummy variablesrepresenting the various regions in Canada: The Maritimes, Quebec,Ontario, the Prairies, British Columbia and Others.

Educational attainment Employee’s highest level of education attained. A set of dummy variablesrepresenting the highest education level attained: High School Completionor Less, College, Completed Undergraduate Degrees, Completed GraduateDegrees and Professional Designations, e.g. chartered accountant, etc.

Tenure Indicates number of years the employee has been working at their currentorganization.

Age Age of the employee, in years.

Rank A set of dummy variables representing the respondent’s level in theorganizational hierarchy:

Pre-manager An individual who is in the pipeline to become “Manager”.

Manager An individual who is seen as being in the pipeline for senior managementor senior leadership roles in their organization.

Professional An individual who provides a particular skill or expertise, but who do nothave people management responsibilities.

Executive An individual who holds the most senior positions in the organization,including the CEO and those individuals reporting directly to the CEOand are responsible for the organization’s policy and strategic planningfor and directing and controlling the functions of the organization.

Industry A set of dummy variables representing the industry sector in which therespondents work: financial services, accounting, law, manufacturing,retail, technology, utility and other.

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada

Perception of Career Advancement Processes was assessed using six items from thesurvey (Diversity Institute and Catalyst Canada 2007). This measure involves access tocareer development and advancement opportunities and also beliefs about the fairness ofcurrent talent identification and promotion practices. Items include: “I believe myorganization does a good job of promoting/admitting into partnership the most compe-tent people”; “I believe I have the opportunity for personal development and growth inmy organization”; “I believe I have as equal a chance of finding out about careeradvancement opportunities as my colleagues do”; “I believe ‘who you know’ (or‘who knows you’) is more important than ‘what you know’ when deciding who getscareer development opportunities in my organization (reverse)”; “I am aware of howtalent is identified in my organization”; “I believe my organization’s talent identificationprocess is fair”. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha) was 0.83.

Skill utilization is measured using one item from the survey: “I feel that I am ableto utilize my skills in my current position”. Means, standard deviations, coefficientalphas and correlations for the perceptual measures are reported in Table 2.

Empirical Findings—Correlates of Career Satisfaction

Using the ordinary least squares multiple regression technique, we assess the impor-tance of employee characteristics (Model 1 and 2), employer characteristics (Model3), objective employment outcomes (Model 4) and subjective workplace perceptions(Model 5) on explaining career satisfaction of managers, professionals and execu-tives. We utilize a set of hierarchical models in order to measure the varianceexplained by each group of our independent variables.

Model 1 in Table 3 shows the results from regressing the employee character-istics on career satisfaction. Women are three percentage points more satisfiedthan men, and those who are married are two percentage points more satisfiedthan respondents who were single supporting H1a. Respondents who identifiedas members of visible minority groups are six percentage points less satisfiedthan white/Caucasian respondents, supporting H1b. Similarly, immigrants are

Table 2 Means, standard deviations and correlation coefficients for subjective perceptual measures

Mean SD Careersatisfaction

Relationshipwith manager

Relationshipwith colleagues

Fair careeradvancement

Skillutilization

Career satisfaction 66.2 23.5 (0.85)

Relationship withmanager

68.3 24.4 0.50* (0.92)

Relationship withcolleagues

80.3 17.2 0.42* 0.53* (0.86)

Fair careeradvancement

65.8 22.4 0.64* 0.59* 0.53* (0.84)

Skill utilization 76.4 24.2 0.48* 0.37* 0.35* 0.43* –

Coefficient alphas are reported on the main diagonal

*p<0.01

M. Yap et al.

Tab

le3

Correlatesof

career

satisfaction

Model

1Model

2Mod

el3

Model

4Mod

el5

Employee

characteristics

Immigrant

−3.1835*

*(0.550

6)−1

.8574*

*(0.596

5)−1

.010

9(0.591

7)−0

.4544(0.564

9)−0

.053

8(0.4311)

Visible

minority

−6.3134*

*(0.552

4)−6

.059**

(0.558

4)−5

.653

9**(0.557

1)−4

.8547*

*(0.532

1)−2

.427

2**(0.407

0)

Wom

en3.0047

**(0.4111)

2.5874

**(0.412

3)2.68

05**

(0.409

6)3.2475

**(0.395

9)3.36

3**(0.302

4)

LGBT

−0.9151(1.229

5)−0

.2537(1.222

4)0.20

56(1.202

1)0.0299

(1.147

1)0.50

99(0.875

3)

Single

Married

2.1588

**(0.538

8)3.0999

**(0.578

2)2.89

88**

(0.569

0)1.9963

**(0.543

9)0.36

86(0.415

4)

Divorced/separated/

widow

ed−0

.7216(0.860

3)0.0976

(0.901

5)0.38

78(0.885

6)0.1469

(0.845

1)−0

.867

9(0.644

8)

Havedisability

−5.6682*

*(1.319

8)−5

.5491*

*(1.310

8)−4

.747

7**(1.289

2)−3

.9158*

*(1.231

0)0.09

92(0.940

9)

Age

−1.2785*

*(0.212

7)−1

.422

4**(0.212

5)−1

.6065*

*(0.205

2)−1

.080

1**(0.156

7)

Age

squared

0.0139

**(0.002

5)0.01

54**

(0.002

5)0.0185

**(0.002

4)0.01

21**

(0.001

8)

Tenu

re−0

.3259*

*(0.093

5)−0

.396

**(0.093

0)−0

.9508*

*(0.090

3)−0

.293

1**(0.069

4)

Tenu

resquared

0.018*

*(0.003

1)0.01

84**

(0.003

1)0.0354

**(0.003

0)0.01

3**(0.002

3)

Highschool

orless

College

−2.5048*

*(0.728

1)−2

.377

7**(0.718

5)−2

.5679*

*(0.686

2)−0

.294

3(0.524

4)

Und

ergraduate

degree

−3.0631*

*(0.700

3)−3

.840

7**(0.697

4)−4

.8464*

*(0.672

7)−1

.903

7**(0.514

9)

Graduatedegree

−4.5483*

*(0.820

4)−6

.953

4**(0.826

7)−8

.6651*

*(0.806

2)−3

.277

**(0.619

7)

Other

professional

design

ations

1.2035

(0.814

0)−3

.4117*

*(0.864

6)−5

.2758*

*(0.836

4)−1

.591

9*(0.640

5)

Foreign

credentials

0.7046

(0.837

3)1.93

49*(0.824

8)3.1193

**(0.790

9)0.72

59(0.604

2)

Foreign

work

experience

−1.3925*

(0.567

0)−1

.536

9**(0.559

3)−2

.1553*

*(0.534

2)−0

.6311(0.407

9)

Employer

characteristics

Manager

Executiv

e7.99

38**

(0.751

8)0.6618

(0.821

7)−0

.450

4(0.627

3)

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada

Tab

le3

(con

tinued)

Model

1Model

2Mod

el3

Model

4Mod

el5

Professional

−2.938

3**(0.520

4)−1

.5065*

*(0.499

1)−0

.387

2(0.381

0)

Pre-M

anager

−7.160

4**(0.783

6)−4

.8664*

*(0.750

6)−2

.686

3**(0.573

3)

Other

−4.609

8**(0.826

6)−1

.7603*

(0.793

4)−0

.809

6(0.605

4)

Financial

services

Accounting

2.7951**

(0.7904)

1.8841*(0.7712)

0.013(0.5904)

Law

5.55

03**

(1.106

2)2.175(1.144

8)1.81

47*(0.876

2)

Manufacturing

−6.967

9**(1.4119)

−4.9741*

*(1.349

1)−1

.244

2(1.031

4)

Retail

−0.043

4(0.915

6)−0

.1249(0.874

2)−0

.801

3(0.667

6)

Utility

−1.504

**(0.564

0)−0

.8379(0.541

7)0.41

7(0.414

2)

Techno

logy

−3.053

**(0.714

8)−3

.5088*

*(0.685

0)−3

.219

8**(0.522

7)

Other

−8.174

4**(0.938

2)−6

.5445*

*(0.896

4)−2

.656

5**(0.686

0)

Ontario

BritishColum

bia

0.1125

(0.749

3)0.1559

(0.716

3)0.35

95(0.546

5)

The

Prairies

1.41

48**

(0.595

2)1.0018

(0.568

2)1.03

57*(0.434

0)

Quebec

2.94

44**

**(0.610

0)3.4343

**(0.583

1)1.28

17**

(0.446

2)

The

Maritimes

2.02

95**

(0.833

3)3.2205

**(0.800

0)2.51

66**

(0.610

5)

Other

0.17

04(1.359

1)−0

.1978(1.297

0)−0

.047

4(0.989

7)

Objectiv

eem

ploy

ment

outcom

es

Ann

ualsalary

0.0828

**(0.005

6)0.05

1**(0.004

3)

Receivedprom

otion

7.9344

**(0.406

2)3.40

71**

(0.313

5)

Receiveddevelopm

ental

opportun

ity9.9665

**(0.427

3)3.51

07**

(0.333

8)

Sub

jective

perceptual

measures

Relationshipwith

manager

0.12

47**

(0.007

8)

M. Yap et al.

Tab

le3

(con

tinued)

Model

1Model

2Mod

el3

Model

4Mod

el5

Relationshipwith

colleagues

0.05

16**

(0.010

5)

Faircareer

advancem

ent

processes

0.42

77**

(0.008

9)

Skillutilizatio

n0.19

26**

(0.006

8)

Constant

66.045

2**(0.565

6)95

.455

9**(4.176

3)10

1.24

09**

(4.275

8)89

.083

1**(4.136

2)26

.519

7**(3.258

2)

Observatio

ns13

,186

13,186

13,186

13,186

13,186

Adj.R-squared

0.0333

0.0495

0.0847

0.1666

0.5149

Chang

esin

adj.

R-squared

0.0162

0.03

520.0819

0.34

83

Standarderrors

inparentheses

*p<0.05

;**p<0.01

,ob

jective

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada

3.18 percentage points less satisfied with their careers than native-bornCanadians, supporting H1c. Individual characteristics, however, explain less than4 % of the variation in the overall career satisfaction scores for the respondents inour sample.Model 2 builds on Model 1 and includes the human capital employees bring totheir organizations. Higher educational attainment correlates with lower careersatisfaction, supporting H2a. Both age and tenure exhibit a curvilinear relation-ship with career satisfaction, supporting H2b, and partially supporting H2c.Although Gattiker and Larwood (1988) and Lee (2003) found a negative rela-tionship between tenure and career satisfaction, we found a curvilinear relation-ship. Respondents who have work experience outside of Canada are less satisfiedwith their careers than those without foreign work experience. This model, whichincludes all employee characteristics, explained only less than 5 % of thevariation in the overall career satisfaction scores of the respondents in oursample.Model 3 further included employer characteristics. Organizational rank wasfound to be positively associated with career satisfaction, supporting H3.Although ranks and industries are significantly correlated with career satisfactionlevels, these variables account for an additional 3.7 % of the variance.

The significant correlates of career satisfaction are the objective employmentoutcomes and the subjective workplace perceptual measures. The objective em-ployment outcomes account for an additional 8.19 % of the variance—see Model4 in Table 3. Respondents with higher salaries and those who received promotionor developmental opportunities in the last 3 years are more satisfied with theircareers, supporting H4a and H4b. The subjective workplace perceptual measuresaccount for an additional 34.83 % of the variance in respondents’ career satis-faction scores—see Model 5 in Table 3. Higher scores on each of the perceptualmeasures correlate with higher career satisfaction levels, supporting H5a, H5b,H5c and H5c.

In the final column of Table 3 (Model 5), a visible minority respondent is lesssatisfied with his/her career, whereas the reverse is true for women. The possession offoreign credentials and foreign work experience, two variables that were significantlycorrelated with career satisfaction in Model 4, are no longer significant after theinclusion of objective employment outcome variables and subjective workplaceperceptual measures. Age and tenure continue to have a curvilinear relationshipwhereby career satisfaction levels of older and longer tenure employees decline andthen revert to an upward trend. Higher educational attainment is associated withlower levels of career satisfaction. In the final analysis, employee characteristics,employer characteristics, objective employment outcomes and the subjective work-place perceptual measures account for 51.5 % of the variance in career satisfactionlevels.

Using our career satisfaction composite, the overall mean career satisfaction scorefor the respondents in our sample is 66.2 on a 100-point scale. However, the meancareer satisfaction scores for immigrant respondents (mean=61.2, SD=25.2) arelower than those who were born in Canada (d=6.8, p<0.01). In addition, there isalso a discrepancy in the career satisfaction scores of visible minority immigrants

M. Yap et al.

(mean=59.0, SD=25.5) as they are much lower than that of non-visible minorityimmigrants (d=7.2, p<0.01)—see Table 4.

The Immigrant Experience

Employee and Employer Characteristics

As shown in Table 5, about 70 % of the visible minority immigrants possessed auniversity education, compared to 46 % of non-visible minority native-born and54.5 % of non-visible minority immigrants. Although the average age is similaracross the three groups, visible minority immigrants had been with their employerfor only 8.4 years; and further, only 5.4 %of the visible minority immigrants were inexecutive roles. Potentially due to their low representation in executive and mana-gerial roles, visible minority immigrants earned an average annual salary of $83,100,compared to $92,100 for non-visible minority native-borns. Conversely, averageearnings for non-visible minority immigrants are higher than that of non-visibleminority who were born in Canada.

Objective Employment Outcomes

Similar proportions in each of the three groups were promoted; however, only 62.8 % ofvisible minority immigrants received developmental opportunity in the last 3 years,compared to 75.0 % of the non-visible minority native-born and 69.8 % of the non-visible minority-immigrants. Immigrants are more likely to possess foreign credentials(38.5% for visible minority immigrants and 19.1% for non-visible minority-immigrants)compared to only 1.0 % of non-visible minority native-born. Only 12.7 % of non-visibleminority native-born possessed foreign work experience, compared to 46.4 % of non-visible minority immigrants and 54.8 % of visible minority immigrants.

Subjective Perceptual Measures

In terms of the subjective workplace perceptual measures, visible minority immi-grants scored two to four percentage points lower than the non-visible minoritygroups (whether native-born or immigrants).

Table 4 The declining CSATcontinuum (overall average=66.2)

Differences from all pairwisecomparisons significantat p<0.05

Immigrantindicator

Visible minorityindicator

Career satisfactionscore

Native born Non-visible minorities 68.8

Native born All 68.1

Immigrant Non-visible minorities 66.2

Native born Visible minorities 62.6

Immigrant All 61.2

Immigrant Visible minorities 59

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada

Immigrant Regression Results

Table 6 shows the partial results from the career satisfaction model for each of thethree groups: non-visible minority who were born in Canada, non-visible minorityimmigrants and visible minority immigrants. The overall power of the model forexplaining the variance in career satisfaction was similar for the three groups (ad-justed R-squared=49.6 % for non-visible minority who were born in Canada, 50.7 %for non-visible minority immigrants and visible minority immigrants). We postulatethat the reason why rank was significant for non-visible minority native-bornrespondents, but not for non-visible minority respondents could be due to a lesserconcern with rank but a greater concern for income and promotion for visibleminority respondents (Table 6); however, this is an area requiring further research.

Employee and Employer Characteristics

With respect to gender, women in all three groups are more satisfied than their malecounterparts. Age and tenure still exhibit the same curvilinear relationship with careersatisfaction for the non-visible minority native-born Canadians and visible minorityimmigrants, but tenure is no longer significantly associated with career satisfaction ofthe non-visible minority immigrants. Education is associated with career satisfaction

Table 5 Selected descriptive statistics by immigrant and visible minority status

Non-visible minoritynative Borns

Non-visible minorityimmigrants

Visible minorityimmigrants

Average age (in years) 41.0 43.4 40.0

Tenure (in years) 12.5 11.2 8.4

% with university degrees 46.2 % 54.5 % 69.8 %

% in executive roles 10.4 % 10.8 % 5.4 %

% in managerial roles 54.6 % 48.6 % 38.4 %

% in professional roles 22.5 % 26.9 % 33.5 %

% in pre-managerial roles 6.5 % 7.8 % 12.2 %

Other level 6.0 % 6.0 % 10.4 %

Average annual salaries ($'000) 92.1 96.6 83.1

% Received promotion 40.8 % 40.4 % 38.8 %

% Received developmental opportunity 75.0 % 69.8 % 62.8 %

% with foreign credentials 1.0 % 19.1 % 38.5 %

% with foreign work experience 12.7 % 46.4 % 54.8 %

Average score—relationship with manager 69.5 67.7 65.0

Average score—relationship withcolleagues

81.2 80.7 77.4

Average score—fair career advancementprocesses

67.5 66.1 60.9

Average score—skill utilization 78.0 77.1 71.8

No. of observations 8,454 1,124 2,462

M. Yap et al.

of non-visible minority who were born in Canada but not for the non-visible minorityimmigrant group. Although non-visible minority native-born Canadian pre-managersare less satisfied with their careers than managers, organizational rank is no longersignificantly associated with career satisfaction levels for the immigrant groups.

Objective Employment Outcomes and Subjective Perceptual Measures

All of the objective employment outcome variables and subjective workplace per-ceptual measures are positively associated with career satisfaction level. For example,a visible minority immigrant who received a promotion in the last 3 years has a careersatisfaction score that is 4.3 % higher than those who did not receive a promotion.

Conclusion

Given the imminent talent shortage facing Canadian organizations, it is important thatmanagers understand the factors that influence career satisfaction levels of theiremployees. Between now and 2016, immigrants are expected to account for a full100 % of Canada’s net labour force growth (Citizenship and Immigration Canada2012). These skilled immigrants are selected on their skills and expertise but oftenface barriers to fully utilize their potential when they enter the professional arena.

Table 6 Correlates of career satisfaction by immigrant and visible minority status

Non-visible minoritynative-borns

Non-visible minorityimmigrants

Visible minorityimmigrants

Manager

Executive −0.3572 (0.7384) 0.5471 (2.1450) −2.1158 (1.8629)

Professional −0.8224 (0.4686) 0.4674 (1.3638) −0.1056 (0.9284)

Pre-manager −2.8809** (0.7456) −1.1484 (2.0626) −1.5107 (1.2605)

Other −1.7480* (0.7692) 0.8265 (2.2740) 1.4050 (1.3208)

Annual salary 0.0479** (0.0051) 0.0500** (0.0146) 0.062** (0.0122)

Received promotion 2.8504** (0.3765) 3.6979** (1.1242) 4.3182** (0.8045)

Received developmentalopportunity

3.7229** (0.4124) 4.3998** (1.1426) 3.1273** (0.8011)

Relationship with manager 0.1189** (0.0095) 0.0878** (0.0271) 0.1462** (0.0190)

Relationship with colleagues 0.0555** (0.0129) 0.0816* (0.0372) 0.0210 (0.0250)

Fair career advancementprocesses

0.4191** (0.0108) 0.4766** (0.0328) 0.4328** (0.0217)

Skill utilization 0.1959** (0.0084) 0.1487** (0.0244) 0.1977** (0.0158)

Constant 27.6763** (4.0182) 22.2455 (11.5626) 31.8757** (8.6244)

Observations 8,454 1,124 2,462

Adj. R-squared 0.4958 0.5070 0.5067

Standard errors in parentheses. Includes controls for employee characteristics, industries and region of work

*p<0.05; **p<0.01

Correlates of Career Satisfaction in Canada

Few studies exist that look at employment outcomes of immigrants. The analysesin this paper contribute to the literature on career satisfaction among managers,professionals and executives in large Canadian for-profit and private organizations,in particular by their immigrant and visible minority status. Career satisfaction, asubjective and self-referent definition of career success, has been shown to beassociated with lower turnover and higher employee engagement which has a directimpact on an organization’s success and growth.

Previous literature has shown that employee and employer characteristics areassociated with employees’ career satisfaction level. Our analyses confirmed thisfinding. More importantly, our findings show that objective employment outcomesand subjective workplace perceptual measures are inextricably linked to careersatisfaction. The explanatory variables included in our final model explained over50 % of the variance in career satisfaction levels, with the majority of the explanationbeing derived from objective employment opportunities and, to a greater degree,subjective perceptual measures. It is possible that perceptual measures account for agreater explanation of career satisfaction due to the ability of the perceptual measuresto capture work experiences. Other studies have found that positive work experiencessuch as the opportunity to utilize skills (Armstrong-Stassen and Ursel 2009; Aryee1993; Lai and Kapstad 2009), positive relationships with colleagues (Wolff andMoser 2009) and managers (Romle and Shamsudin 2006; August and Waltman2004), and fair assessment of work (Igbaria and Wormley 1992), all have a positiveimpact on an employee’s career satisfaction.

Although the overall career satisfaction score of our sample was an average of66.2, there is a discernible difference when we look at the career satisfaction level byimmigration and visible minority status. Native-born Canadians scored higher thanimmigrants (68.1 versus 61.2), and in each category, those who self-identified asvisible minorities scored lower than those who did not (68.8 for non-visible minoritynative-born versus 62.6 for visible minority native-born; 66.2 for non-visible minor-ity immigrant versus 59.0 for visible minority immigrant). These findings are con-sistent with those found in Deshpande and Deshpande (2012) and Igbaria andWormley (1992).

The ability of our model to explain the variation in career satisfaction levels fornon-visible minority native-born, non-visible minority immigrant and visible minor-ity immigrants is similar. Factors considered in our model are associated with careersatisfaction levels of each of these three groups.

The findings also present a number of significant implications for management.An understanding of the factors that correlate with career satisfaction enables organ-izations to focus their efforts on creating an inclusive and productive work environ-ment where all employees can excel. Based on the findings, the creation of policies,programs and practices that facilitate fair and equitable rewards and career advance-ment and development processes will be beneficial to both organizations and employ-ees as higher levels of career satisfaction are associated with lower levels of turnoverintention (Joo and Park 2010).

One of the most important assets of an organization is the talents of its employees.With the imminent talent shortage, recruitment and retention of skilled and committedemployees have become most organizations’ top priorities in maintaining competitiveadvantage. Diverse groups have been found to enhance access to global markets

M. Yap et al.

(Adler et al. 2001), increase creativity and innovations (Dalton 2006), enable ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas (Certo et al. 2006) and increase financial performance (ConferenceBoard of Canada 2008).

Under the old employment contract, once employees are hired, they could beexpected to stay with the firm for some time. However, with the increasing volatilityof the talent market, organizations would be wise to engage in re-recruiting theirexisting employees on an on-going basis. One place to start could be to include careersatisfaction scores as one of their key performance indexes on their organization’sbalanced scorecard.

Despite the contribution made by this paper, there are certain limitations thatconstrain us from generalizing our results to the overall Canadian labour force. Asmentioned earlier, our data only include managers, professionals and executives whooccupy the upper echelon of large Canadian corporations. Large corporations aremore likely to have established human resources processes and the financial resourcesto ensure the appropriate infrastructure is in place. As such, our findings may notapply to entry-level employee in small- and medium-sized organizations, the publicservice or non-profit organizations. Also, because the visible minority immigrant andnon-visible minority respondents have been with their organizations for 8 and11 years, respectively, the findings may not speak to the experience of new immi-grants. Future research should attempt to examine why the greatest explanatorypower for career satisfaction is derived from perceptual measures. The reason fordifferences between women in the three groups (visible minority, immigrant visibleminority and immigrant-non visible minority), and the differences between recent andtenured immigrants, should also be examined in further detail in future studies.

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